Accreditation at Mouse Mountain Elementary

The Beginning: We started the job of looking at our school closely in the spring of 1999. Throughout the fall of 1999 and into the spring of 2000, the staff, and parents Nichole Loza and Julie Daum, worked hard to determine how well our programs were working and how parents and community members felt about our school. From information that was gathered, we developed a plan to make our school the best it can be.

The Middle: In April of 2000 a team of 3 people; Sue Gower, a principal from Fort Nelson, Barb Scobie, a teacher from Prince George and Zeta a parent from Telkwa, came to see if the document we had developed was a true reflection of the school and if we were headed in the right direction with our goals for the future. At the end of their stay they made a glowing report to staff and parents. They told us that we should be very proud of our school as our parents and the community were proud of us. Mouse Mountain School was fully accredited.

Not the End: Now the real work begins as we start to do the things we said we would do to keep Mouse Mountain the great school we know it to be. Accreditation is a six year process. We have five years to put our plans into action and then we will again look at our school to see how we have been doing.

Three Goals

1. To raise the performance of our lower performing students.

2. To enhance individualized learning opportunities through interactive computer software.

3. To write performance indicators that will let us know if the students are learning what we want them to learn in all areas from academics to social responsibility.

Report at the end of the first year:

We have had major up grading in our computer lab this year. CCC Successmaker has been implemented in both reading and math for many students. Children are stretched to think and solve problems, and skills that have been taught in the classroom are reinforced. We have been collecting data to follow student growth throughout the year and will be tabulating this information to see if it is having a positive impact on student success.

Last summer, teachers attended workshops on the new performance standards that the ministry has published. In the fall we looked closely at the writing document. We worked in groups to develop a list of skills which children at each grade level should accomplish in each reporting period. We hope that by making this a part of the report card it makes it clear to parents how their child is doing in writing.